Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

This article is about the film. For the video game, see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (video game).

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Bay
Written by	Roberto Orci Alex Kurtzman Ehren Kruger
Produced by	Steven Spielberg (executive) Lorenzo di Bonaventura Ian Bryce Tom DeSanto Don Murphy
Starring	Shia LaBeouf Megan Fox Josh Duhamel Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro Voices: Peter Cullen Hugo Weaving Mark Ryan Frank Welker Jess Harnell Charlie Adler Robert Foxworth Tony Todd Tom Kenny Grey DeLisle André Sogliuzzo
Cinematography	Ben Seresin
Edited by	Roger Barton Paul Rubell Joel Negron Thomas Muldoon
Music by	Steve Jablonsky Linkin Park
Production companies	DreamWorks Pictures Paramount Pictures Hasbro Di Bonaventura Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland: June 19, 2009 North America, Australia and New Zealand: June 24, 2009
Running time	149 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$200 million
Box office	$148,703,693

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction action film which was released on June 19, 2009 in the United Kingdom and June 24, 2009 in North America. It is the sequel to 2007's Transformers, which was the first live action Transformers film. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg return respectively as director and executive producer, while Shia LaBeouf reprises the role of Sam Witwicky, the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons. The film introduces many more robots and the scope has been expanded to numerous countries, most notably France and Egypt.

A major hurdle that was overcome during the film's production was the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, as well as possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Bay finished the production on time with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting took place from May to November 2008.

Plot summary

The film opens with a short prologue narrated by Optimus Prime, depicting primitive human beings in the year 17,000 BC being enslaved by The Fallen for building a gigantic device.

Two years after the events of the first film, the Autobots have joined forces with the British and American military to form an organization named "NEST", to combat the Decepticons hiding out on Earth. NEST goes to Shanghai, China, encountering Decepticons Demolishor and Sideways. Sideswipe kills Sideways with the help of Arcee and the twins, and Optimus and Ironhide kill Demolishor, who in his last words says that "The Fallen will rise again".

Soundwave, a Decepticon intelligence officer, hacks into a satellite during a meeting between American National Security Advisor Galloway and Optimus Prime, and discovers the location of both Megatron's corpse and the AllSpark shard. Soundwave deploys Ravage to retrieve the shard, which he accomplishes by deploying hundreds of bug-like robots that group to form a single robot.

Meanwhile, Ravage, Long Haul, Rampage, Mixmaster and an unidentified Constructicon set out to rescue Megatron from the bottom of the Laurentian Abyss. After finding him, Ravage deploys "The Doctor", who revives Megatron using the piece of the AllSpark and parts obtained from the smaller unseen Constructicon. Megatron flies to a Decepticon spacecraft on a planet, where he is reunited with air commander Starscream and The Fallen, Megatron's master. We see Decepticon hatchlings dying due to insufficient energon, the energy source driving the Transformers. The Fallen intends to destroy the Sun and Earth in the process in order to create more energon.

Sam Witwicky, preparing to head off to college, finds another shard of the AllSpark which gives him outbreaks of seeing ancient Cybertronian text. The AllSpark fragment eventually brings various kitchen appliances to life, which are destroyed by Bumblebee, wrecking the Witwicky family's house in the process, after which Sam entrusts Mikaela with keeping the shard locked up. Wheelie then tries to steal it from Mikaela, but he gets captured by her.

At college, Sam meets his roommate Leo Spitz, who runs an alien conspiracy website. As Sam's outbreaks continue, he gets harassed by Alice, supposedly a co-ed. And after one of such outbreaks, Sam calls Mikaela and she comes to his aid. Mikaela arrives, finding Sam with Alice, who is revealed to be a Decepticon Pretender. Mikaela, Sam and Leo drive off in a Saturn Astra with Alice chasing them. Mikaela, disposes of Alice, but their car promptly gets carried away by Grindor in his helicopter mode.

After Grindor drops them into a warehouse, the trio are confronted by Megatron, Starscream, Grindor and The Doctor. Sam is then immobilized and The Doctor surgically extract the information from Sam's brain, which is said to indicate the location of a new energon on Earth. Optimus and Bumblebee arrive, and the action moves to a nearby forest, where Optimus ends up taking on Megatron, Starscream and Grindor, with the latter getting killed. Optimus is finally impaled through the chest by Megatron and gets killed too. The rest of the Autobots arrive and Sam is evacuated from the scene.

The Decepticons invade Earth, and Soundwave hacks into all television signals to broadcast The Fallen demanding that Sam be surrendered. Meanwhile, Galloway shuts down NEST and Sam's parents are captured by the Decepticons in Paris.

Sam, now a fugitive, flees with Mikaela, Leo, Bumblebee, Wheelie and the twins. Leo suggests seeking the help of his website rival "RoboWarrior", who turns out to be former Sector Seven Agent Simmons. Simmons concludes that the symbols could only be read by a Decepticon. Mikaela thus releases Wheelie, who explains that the symbols are the language of the Dynasty of Primes. He can't read it so he leads the group to the Smithsonian, where they would find Jetfire. When Wheelie finds out about Jetfire becoming an autobot, he decides to switch sides too. After getting updated on the situation, Jetfire teleports the group to Egypt.

Once in Egypt, Jetfire explains that the Primes used suns to power the AllSpark by using machines called Sun Harvesters, which use the Matrix of Leadership as a key. While the Primes intended that Sun Harvesters not be used in a star system with life forms, one of their own — thereafter known as The Fallen — betrayed them, and started a war over the Matrix. The other Primes took the Matrix away from him and sacrificed themselves to seal it away at a hidden location in the desert.

They ultimately find the Matrix in Petra, Jordan, but when Sam takes it, it crumbles to dust, which he piles into his sock. Simmons contacts Lennox and asks him to bring the Autobots and Optimus' body to Egypt, a Prime being the only one capable of killing The Fallen. As Lennox's team arrives, so do the Decepticons. Lennox's superiors order a full scale military operation to support Lennox and the Autobots. Devastator is revealed and clims a pyramid trying to uncover the Sun Harvester, but is ultimately destroyed by a rail gun round fired from a nearby destroyer.

Rampage releases Sam's parents, and fights Bumblebee, who kills Rampage and Ravage. Meanwhile, purple and pink Arcee are severely injured by Starscream while escorting Sam and Mikaela to Optimus. Additional reinforcements are summoned, killing Long Haul and Scrapper. However, Sam is caught in the attack, becoming clinically dead. While in this state, Sam has a vision of the Dynasty of Primes. Then he reawakens, the Matrix regenerates, and he uses it to revive Optimus. However, before Optimus fully recovered, The Fallen teleports and takes the Matrix back from Optimus.

After killing Mixmaster, Jetfire fights Scorponok, killing him, but also getting mortally wounded himself. He then gives up his own spark and parts to Optimus, which are attached to Optimus by Jolt and Ratchet. Optimus, now able to fly, goes to destroy the Sun Harvester and kill The Fallen, with Megatron and Starscream making a tactical retreat.

The film concludes with Optimus proclaiming that the Transformers and humans now share an untold history and will combine their differences.

Cast and characters

Humans

• Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky, the teenager who killed Megatron. In this movie, Sam is trying to get some personal development, and have a normal kid's life, getting over his world-saviour status, and out of the overprotection from his parents and Bumblebee. He attends an East Coast college to learn astronomy. During his time there, Sam starts having mental flashes about Cybertronian symbols that turn out to be the key to finding a source of energon on Earth, so now the Decepticons are after him to get that information. On July 27, 2008, LaBeouf was involved in a car crash, with fellow actress Isabel Lucas, and had to undergo hand surgery. The character getting burned in the story was an unrelated decision. LaBeouf said production was only delayed by two days after his accident because Bay made up for it by filming second unit scenes, and he recovered from the accident a few weeks earlier than expected, allowing him to return to the set. Bay had suggested the hand injury would be written into the story, and Orci said on-set rewrites were done to protect his hand for the remainder of the shoot. Towards the end of filming though, LaBeouf injured his eye when he hit a prop, which required seven stitches. He resumed filming two hours later.
• Megan Fox plays Mikaela Banes, Sam's girlfriend, who cannot afford to attend college with him. She works alongside her father, Cal, at a motorcycle repair shop. Fox cannot ride bikes in reality and had to have someone push her vehicle around as she rode on them. Fox had lost a lot of weight for her role in Jennifer's Body, and had to gain ten pounds within three weeks. She explained "Michael doesn't like skinny girls."
• Josh Duhamel plays Major William Lennox, a U.S. Army Ranger and Green Beret and ally of the Autobots. Since the 2007 film Lennox has become part of NEST, an international taskforce battling Decepticons with the Autobots.
• Tyrese Gibson plays Robert Epps, a U.S. Air Force Combat Controller and a member of NEST. He has been promoted to the rank of Chief Master Sergeant.
• John Turturro plays Seymour Simmons, former agent of the terminated Sector 7 unit, which monitored Transformer activity on Earth. He is now off-duty, working in his mother's deli restaurant when Sam enlists his aid. He joins Sam's group and is responsible for the destruction of Devastator. Turturro was allowed to climb the real pyramids during filming.
• Kevin Dunn and Julie White play Ron and Judy Witwicky, Sam's parents. They learned the truth about the Transformers while off-screen in the last film.
• Ramón Rodríguez plays Leo Spitz, Sam's college roommate who owns a website on conspiracy theories. He accompanies Sam and Mikaela all the way to Egypt. Rodriguez endured 100 mph winds created by fans while filming in Egypt, which resulted in him dislocating his shoulder and having to spend 45 minutes having his eyes flushed of sand.
• Matthew Marsden plays Graham, an agent of the fictional SASF, and a member of the United Kingdom Special Forces who joins NEST. Marsden grew up reading the comics and loved the 2007 film. Bay was impressed with his audition and decided to increase the character's screentime.
• Rainn Wilson cameos as Professor Colan, Sam's sleazy college lecturer. Bay based the character on one of his professors at Wesleyan University, who was rumored to be chatting up his female students.

Glenn Morshower, having cameoed in the 2007 film's opening action sequence as a soldier killed by Blackout, now returns playing a character named Gen. Morshower after himself. John Benjamin Hickey plays a character named Galloway, a national security advisor, who believes all robots must be banished from the earth, including Autobots. Steve Tom and Kym Whitley have unnamed roles. Bay wanted Amaury Nolasco to return as soldier Jorge Figueroa, who was wounded by Scorponok in the 2007 film, but Nolasco was not able to participate due to schedule conflicts, though this does not rule out a return in any upcoming sequels.

Autobots

• Peter Cullen voices Optimus Prime, the Autobot leader. He retains his alternate mode of a blue Peterbilt truck with red flame decals. Cullen recorded a voiceover for the opening scene in August 2008, but began the majority of voice work in November. Originally, a cameo was written for Cullen, but it's not present in the finished movie.
• Bumblebee, the Autobot who befriended Sam and disguises himself as his fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro. Ryan reportedly reprised his role as Bumblebee from the 2007 movie, but ultimately, no spoken lines by the character were included in the finished film. Ryan also continued his role as stand-in for the robots on set. Bumblebee's voice is still malfunctioning, and he still uses radio soundbites to express some of his emotions. The filmmakers updated his previous appearance as the 2006 Camaro Concept based on the Super Sport version of the 2010 production model. Ed Welburn, vice president of GM Global Design, said the redesigned car emphasized Bumblebee as becoming stronger after having his severed legs reattached in the first film: the new intakes and spoilers show he is a sturdier character.
• Jess Harnell voices Ironhide, the Autobot weapons specialist who transforms into a GMC Topkick.
• Robert Foxworth voices Ratchet, the Autobot medic who transforms into a search and rescue Hummer H2.
• Mark Ryan voices Jetfire, a former Decepticon who transforms into a SR-71 Blackbird. His wounds and age have made him choose to become an Autobot. The writers wanted a geriatric robot, and during scripting they gave Jetfire that personality. He creaks, does not transform well, and is said to be running out of energon. Also, he walks with a cane, which doubles as a battle axe. Jetfire initially appeared in the tie-in card game to the 2007 film.
• Grey DeLisle voices Arcee, a single consciousness driving three female Transformers that transform into three motorcycles: a pink Ducati superbike, a blue Suzuki B-King 2008, and a purple MV Agusta F4. All three motorcycles feature customizations performed by custom sportsbike builder retroSBK. Although this ability was dropped from the movie, the robots that make up Arcee were once meant to be able to combine into a single robot. This ability can still be seen in the movie's novelization and toy line.
  While the name "Arcee" is used for the three characters collectively in the film, the accompanying toyline has characterized each bike separately. Thus, the pink bike is called Arcee, and the blue motorcycle is named Chromia. The purple third robot has yet to be characterized in any ancillary media. Arcee was initially meant to appear in the 2007 film as a robot that transformed from a single bike, but was ultimately dropped from it due to concerns of her being too small compared to the other bots, and the fact that the writers felt there was not enough time to explain her "gender", despite her and several other female Transformers appearing in the first film's toy line and tie-in comics. Whether to explain robotic gender or not was something the writers were unsure about, and it remained undecided until post-production, with the issue eventually remaining unaddressed in the finished movie. Arcee riders were played by Erin Naas.
• Reno Wilson and Tom Kenny voice Mudflap and Skids, also known as the twins. These Autobot infiltrators transform respectively into a red Chevrolet Trax and green Chevrolet Beat. Mudflap is very hyperactive, while Skids believes himself to be the smarter of the two and tries to come across as mature, but nevertheless appears unable to keep quiet. Bay compared the message of the bumbling but heroic characters to the story The Little Engine That Could. He chose the Beat and Trax for the Autobot twins because he thought those two small cars looked good together. Ed Welburn added when they had designed the cars before Bay selected them, the "character" they wanted to bring to the concepts was a sense that small cars could be as cool as large ones. The twins have the ability to combine. They start the film by combining into a pink and white ice cream van, and although it was probably dropped at some point during production, it was initially said that they would have the ability combine to form a bigger robot.
• André Sogliuzzo voices Sideswipe, a silver Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Concept. Having wheels for feet, he moves around skating, similarly to the way Bonecrusher did in the 2007 movie. He is an expert fighter with his swords and tries to get in close with his opponents. At BotCon 2009, the movie writers said Sideswipe was originally scripted to be a Lamborghini as he was in G1, but Bay had his choice of cars and went with the Stingray. Also, the fact that Lamborghini is owned by the Volkswagen Group (long resistant to allowing their brands as Transformers), may have played a part in the decision.
• Jolt, a blue Chevrolet Volt armed with a pair of electric whips, befitting his electric car alternate mode. He was a last-minute addition to the cast as General Motors, the film's car supplier, wanted to promote the Volt. The writers had already wanted to include the car in the script before the Writers Guild strike, so they had to work out a character that would fit well within the Autobot team afterwards and convince Bay to approve the addition. Welburn was pleased the Volt's character was christened Jolt by the filmmakers, as it reflected that car's design "character".
• Tom Kenny also voices Wheelie, a blue radio-controlled toy monster truck. Wheelie initially serves the Decepticons just because he is scared by them, but during the movie he is convinced by Jetfire that they are allowed to choose sides. Wheelie soon sides with the Autobots after hearing this He is called "Wheels" in the film novel.
• Michael York, Kevin Michael Richardson and Robin Atkin Downes voice The Dynasty of Primes, a group of robots that confront Sam while he's on the verge of dying in a vision.

Decepticons

• Hugo Weaving voices Megatron, the Decepticon leader. Despite Michael Bay's initial claims of him not returning after he was killed and thrown into the Laurentian Abyss in the first film, Megatron is resurrected by the Decepticons with an AllSpark shard as a Cybertronian tank, retaining his flight ability from the 2007 movie (accompaying media says he retains a jet mode). He has become stronger as a result of absorbing the AllSpark that originally killed him. When reviving the character, the writers chose not to rename him Galvatron so as to not confuse the general audience.
• Tony Todd voices The Fallen, one of the Original Thirteen Transformers and Megatron's master. He is the one who corrupted Megatron into forming the Decepticons. He had been trapped in another dimension and was able to communicate with the Decepticons via an interdimensional window. The image of his face, seen through this window, served as inspiration for the Decepticon insignia. He is capable of opening Space Bridges at will. Lorenzo di Bonaventura compared The Fallen to Judas Iscariot. Although this form is not in the film, his toy versions transform into a Cybertronian aircraft. The writers selected The Fallen after looking through various cartoons and comics for new characters, because he was the most "elemental" villain. At some point, Leonard Nimoy and Frank Welker were considered for voicing the Fallen.
• Charlie Adler voices Starscream, the air commander who transforms into an F-22 Raptor. He flew into space at the end of the previous film, and now returns bearing Cybertronian symbols on his body and commanding a new Decepticon army. Chris Mowry, writer of the comic book prequels, stated Starscream differs from his 1980s incarnation because "His motivations are more for the species. He's definitely at odds with what Prime and Megatron have been doing. He thinks that they've both been consumed with greed, for their own selfish reasons, but as he finds out, his plans start to fall through as he’s kind of becoming overwhelmed with the same greed that they had." However, Orci explained that Starscream would have more dialogue than in the first movie, and that dialogue additions during post-production edged Starscream closer towards his 1980s counterpart.
• Frank Welker voices Soundwave, Megatron's intelligence officer. He transforms into a Cybertronian craft with jet and satellite capabilities, coordinating the Decepticons' movements around the world. The concept artists also designed an Earth form of a Chevrolet Silverado for him to upgrade into, which Orci stated was dropped. The filmmakers had tried to work Soundwave into the first film twice, and these roles eventually evolved into Blackout and Frenzy. The latter character was particularly thought to be too different from the original.
  • Ravage, a minion of Soundwave that resembles a large one-eyed jaguar that transforms into a cybertronian missile.
• John Di Crosta voices The Doctor (known as Scalpel in the toy line), a small, spider-like robot who turns into a microscope. He is a medic and scientist equipped with tools he is seen using to torture Sam. The packaging of his Scout-Class figure details he is skilled in dissecting and rebuilding almost any living organism.
• Sideways, a silver Audi R8 hiding with Demolishor in Shanghai, China until he is discovered by the Autobots.
• Grindor, a robot greatly similar to Blackout from the 2007 movie. Grindor shares both Blackout's MH-53 Pave Low helicopter alternative mode, and his robot model, being only differentiated by a lighter paint job and different head model.
• The Constructicons, a Decepticon sub-faction of robots that transform into construction vehicles.
  • Calvin Wimmer voices Demolishor, who transforms into a red Terex O&K RH 400 hydraulic mining excavator. In robot mode, his treads turn into huge wheels, enabling him to roll either on the two of them, or only on the front one, with the rear one lifted behind his head. During production, the film writers simply called him "Wheelbot", and he is erroneously listed by that name in the film's credits. Also, he is referred to as "Demolisher" in the film novel.
  • Mixmaster, who transforms into a black and silver Mack concrete mixer truck. He is briefly seen to have a third "battle mode" which appears to be a gun emplacement. According to his toy bio, he is an expert in chemistry and explosives who makes explosives and poisons for the other Decepticons' weapons.
  • Long Haul, whose alternative mode is a green Caterpillar 773B dump truck. Long Haul's robot mode was designed by freelance artist Josh Nizzi as fan art of the original character. The fan art impressed Bay enough to hire him on to the film.
  • Kevin Michael Richardson provides vocal effects for Rampage, who transforms into a red Caterpillar D9 bulldozer. He also sports a third "jackhammer" mode in which he has a snake-like body and moves by jumping around. Although the character is referred to with his finalized name in on-screen subtitles, during production, he was known as "Skipjack", and is erroneously listed by that early name in the film's credits.
  • Scrapper, a robot that turns into a yellow Caterpillar 992G scoop loader.
  • An unnamed Constructicon transforming into a white Volvo backhoe is briefly seen when the Constructicons' protoforms first arrive at the cargo ship, but he is never shown again.
• Frank Welker also provided vocal effects for Devastator, a 46 feet (14 m) tall (hunched over) massive robot formed by several combining construction vehicles, who walks in a four-legged fashion resembling a gorilla. He is physically unable to stand upright, but would be 100 feet (30 m) to 120 feet (37 m) tall if he did. His jaws can open up to form some sort of suction vortex, and he seems to have grappling hooks he is seen using to climb a pyramid. In the first film, the name "Devastator" was mistakenly given to Brawl, a tank.
  Although in the toy line these vehicles are characterized into robots, in the movie Devastator's components are never seen to adopt any individual robot modes.
  The vehicles that make up Devastator are:
  • A black and silver Mack concrete mixer truck forms the head. Called Mixmaster in the toy line.
  • A red Terex O&K RH 400 hydraulic mining excavator forms the upper torso. Called Scavenger in the toy line.
  • A yellow Caterpillar 992G scoop loader forms the right arm. Called Scrapper in the toy line.
  • A yellow Kobelco CK2500 crawler crane forms the left arm. Called Hightower in the toy line.
  • A green Caterpillar 773B dump truck forms the right leg. Called Long Haul in the toy line.
  • A red articulated dump truck forms the lower torso. Called Overload in the toy line.
  • A yellow Caterpillar D9 bulldozer forms the left leg. Called Rampage in the toy line.
• Isabel Lucas plays Alice, a Pretender who stalks Sam by pretending to be a co-ed of his. Though not covered in the film, the novelization and comic adaptation explain her adopted earth mode as her duplicating the appearance of a theme park animatronic figure of Alice in Wonderland.
• Scorponok, a giant robotic scorpion. After the events of the 2007 film Scorponok hid in the desert and repaired his tail.

The movie features other minor robots, including Insecticons, Reedman (vocal effects by Frank Welker), a razor-thin robot formed by a swarm of marble-sized 'bots dropped by Ravage, and some kitchen appliances from Sam's kitchen brought to life by the AllSpark shard. Among these kitchen bots, is a pyromaniac toaster bot, named Ejector in the toy line, who had also appeared unnamed in Mountain Dew commercials tying in to the 2007 Transformers film. There is also a brief cameo of Frenzy. His decapitated head is seen in a jar in Simmons' posession, with Simmons commenting that it is "still radioactive". Also Bonecrusher's vehicle mode from the 2007 film also makes a cameo appearance among the forces in Egypt. An unnamed robot whose head looks like Barricade from the 2007 film kidnaps the Witwicky parents in France.

Production

Development

In September 2007, Paramount announced a late June 2009 release date for the sequel to Transformers, and Bay began creating animatics of action sequences featuring characters rejected for the 2007 film. This would allow animators to complete sequences if the Directors Guild of America went on strike in July 2008 (fortunately the strike did not happen). The director considered making a small project in between Transformers and its sequel, but knew "you have your baby and you don't want someone else to take it". The film was given a $200 million budget, which was $50 million more than the 2007 film, and some of the action scenes rejected for the original were written into the sequel, such as the way Optimus is reintroduced in this film. Lorenzo di Bonaventura said the studio proposed filming two sequels simultaneously, but he and Bay concurred that was not the right direction for the series.

Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman originally passed on the sequel because of a busy schedule. The studio began courting other writers in May 2007, but as they were unimpressed with their pitches, they convinced Orci and Kurtzman to return. The studio also signed on Ehren Kruger, as he impressed Bay and Hasbro president Brian Goldner with his knowledge of the Transformers mythology, and because he was friends with Orci and Kurtzman. The writing trio were paid $8 million. Screenwriting was interrupted by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, but to avoid production delays the writers spent two weeks writing a treatment, which they handed in the night before the strike began, and Bay expanded the outline into a sixty-page scriptment, fleshing out the action, adding more jokes, as well as selecting the majority of new characters. The three writers spent four months finishing the screenplay while "locked" in two hotel rooms by Bay: Kruger wrote in his own room and the trio would check on each others' work twice a day.

Orci described the film's theme as "being away from home", with the Autobots contemplating living on Earth as they cannot restore Cybertron, while Sam goes to college. He wanted the focus between the robots and humans "much more evenly balanced", "the stakes [to] be higher", and more focused on the science fiction elements. Lorenzo di Bonaventura said that in total, there are around forty robots in the film, while ILM's Scott Farrar has said there are actually sixty. Orci added he wanted to "modulate" the humor more, and felt he managed the more "outrageous" jokes by balancing it with a more serious plot approach to the Transformers' mythology. Bay concurred that he wanted to please fans by making the tone darker, and that "moms will think its safe enough to bring the kids back out to the movies" despite his trademark sense of humor. Kurtzman created the film's title. The filmmakers considered incorporating the comics' character of G. B. Blackrock, but Bay considered the name too cartoonish.

During production, Bay attempted to create a misinformation campaign to increase debate over what Transformers would be appearing in the film, as well as to try to throw fans off from the story of the film. However, Orci confessed it had generally not been working. The studio went as far as to censor MTV and Comic Book Resources interviews with Mowry and Furman, who confirmed Arcee and The Fallen would be in the picture. Bay told Empire that Megatron would not be resurrected, claiming his new tank form was a toy-only character, only for Orci to confirm Megatron would return in the film in February 2009. Bay also claimed he faked leaked daily call sheets from the first week of filming, that revealed Ramón Rodríguez's casting, and the appearance of Jetfire and the twins.

Filming

Filming began in Los Angeles, California, in May 2008. The former Hughes Aircraft soundstages at Playa Vista served for filming the majority of interior scenes. From June 2, three days were spent on an action sequence at the Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which was used to represent a portion of Shanghai. Afterwards, they shot at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The crew moved to Philadelphia on June 9, where they shot at the Exelon power plant on Delaware Avenue, the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, the Eastern State Penitentiary, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia City Hall, Rittenhouse Square, and historic Chancellor Street (which represents a street near Place de la Concorde in Paris), and Wanamaker's. They moved to Princeton University on June 22. Filming there angered some students at the University of Pennsylvania, believing Bay had chosen to reshoot scenes at Princeton and script Princeton's name in the movie. However, neither the University of Pennsylvania nor Princeton gave Bay permission to be named in the film because of a "funny 'mom' scene" that both felt "did not represent the school".

Three days of filming were spent in Egypt.

Bay scheduled a break for filming beginning on June 30, turning his attention to animation and second unit scenes because of the potential 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike. Shooting for the Shanghai battle later continued in Long Beach, California. The crew shot at Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico during September. The two locations were used for Qatar in the 2007 film, and stood in for Egypt in this film. A scale model in Los Angeles was also used for some close-ups of the pyramids. Shooting at Tucson International Airport and the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group's aircraft boneyard took place in October under the fake working title Prime Directive (a reference to Star Trek). This location was delayed from July. Filming also took place at Camp Pendleton and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

The first unit (including Shia LaBeouf) then shot for three days in Egypt itself, at the Giza pyramid complex and Luxor. For security's sake, the shoot was highly secretive, but according to Lorenzo di Bonaventura, a crew of 150 Americans and "several dozen local Egyptians" ensured a "remarkably smooth" shoot. Bay earned the Egyptian government's approval to film at the pyramids by contacting Zahi Hawass, who Bay recalled "put his arm around me and said, 'Don't hurt my pyramids.'" A fifty foot tall camera crane was used at the location. Four days were then spent in Jordan; the Royal Jordanian Air Force aided in filming at Petra, Wadi Rum and Salt because one of the country's princes liked the 2007 film. Filming continued at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, with second unit shots of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. The cast and crew finished on the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis on November 2, 2008.

Bay stated he found the climax of the 2007 film to be weak, partly because it was shot across five different city blocks, making the action confusing and hard to follow. On this film, the final battle in Egypt was devised to make it easier to see what was going on.

Effects

Starscream confronts Sam. On his audio commentary for the 2007 film, Michael Bay said he wanted more close-ups of robots for the sequel.

Hasbro became more involved in the designs of the robots than in the 2007 film, and they and Takara Tomy suggested to the filmmakers that combining robots be the main draw for the sequel. They insisted on keeping the alternate modes of some of the returning characters similar, so people would not have to buy toys of the same characters. Bay used real F-16 Fighting Falcon and tank fire when filming the battles. Many of the new Autobot cars supplied by General Motors were brightly colored to look distinctive on screen.

Scott Farrar returned as visual effects supervisor and anticipated moodier use of lighting as well as deeper roles for the Decepticons. He stated that with the bigger deadline, post-production will be a "circus". The producers expected that with a bigger budget and the special effects worked out, the Transformers would have a larger role. Peter Cullen recalled, "Don Murphy mentioned to me, 'Only because of the tremendous expense to animate Optimus Prime, he'll be in just a certain amount of [the 2007 film].' But he said, 'Next time, if the movie is a success, you're gonna be in it a ton.'" Michael Bay hoped to include more close-ups of the robots' faces. Farrar said the animators implemented more "splashes and the hits and the fighting on dirt or moving, banging into trees, [...] things splinter and break, they [the robots] spit, they outgas, they sweat, they snort." Shooting in the higher resolution of IMAX required up to 72 days to render a single frame of animation. While ILM used 15 terabytes for the 2007 film, on the sequel they used up 140.

Orci hinted the majority of the Decepticons were entirely computer-generated in both robot and alternate modes, making it easier to write additional scenes for them in post-production.

Music

See also: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - The Album and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - The Score

The score to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was composed by Steve Jablonsky, who reunited with director Michael Bay to recorded his score with a 71-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage.

Jablonsky and his score producer Hans Zimmer will be utilizing a song by Linkin Park – whose song "What I've Done" was used in the 2007 film – called "New Divide", composing various interpretations of it for the score.

Release and marketing

File:Megan Fox in Berlin 2009.jpg

Megan Fox at the premiere in Berlin, Germany.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was premiered on June 8, 2009, in Tokyo, Japan. After its UK release on June 19, 2009, it will be released in regular and IMAX theaters in North America on June 24 (though some theaters held limited-access advance screenings on June 22). Three of the action sequences were shot with IMAX cameras, and the IMAX release will get additional scenes not seen in the regular theater version, supposedly featuring robot fighting sequences. Orci mentioned in an August 2008 posting that the IMAX footage would be 3D, although when IMAX officially announced the use of their technology on the project, no mention was made of 3D. Bay later revealed that he found 3D gimmicky, adding he was an "old school" filmmaker. He added that IMAX was easier to use than stereoscopic cameras.

Hasbro's Revenge of the Fallen toy line will include new molds of new and returning characters, as well as 2007 figures with new mold elements or new paint schemes. The first wave was released on May 30, although Bumblebee and Soundwave debuted beforehand. The second wave is due in August 2009, which introduces toys such as 2 1/4-inch human action figures that fit inside the transforming robots, and non-transforming replicas of the cars which can be used on a race track. The combining Devastator toy will not come out until August. Product placement partners on the film include Burger King, LG phones, Kmart, Wal-Mart, YouTube, Nike, Inc. and M&M's. General Motors' financial troubles will limit its involvement in promotion of the sequel, although Paramount acknowledged with or without GM, their marketing campaign was still very large and had the foundation of the first film's success. Kyle Busch will drive a Revenge of the Fallen/M&M's decoed car at Infineon Raceway on June 21, 2009, while Josh Duhamel will drive a 2010 Camaro at the Indianapolis 500.

Printed media

Chris Mowry and artist Alex Milne, who had collaborated on The Reign of Starscream comic book, reunited for IDW Publishing's prequel to the film. Originally set to be a five part series entitled Destiny, it was split into two simultaneously published series, titled Alliance and Defiance. Alliance is drawn by Milne and began in December 2008: it focuses on the human and Autobot perspectives. Defiance, which started the following month, is drawn by Dan Khanna and is set before either film, showing the beginnings of the war.

After the first movie, and serving as a bridge between the two movies, Alan Dean Foster wrote Transformers: The Veiled Threat, originally titled Infiltration. During the writing, Foster collaborated with IDW to make sure their stories didn't contradict each other.

The first printed media directly related to the second movie was a 32-page coloring and activity book by publisher HarperCollins (ISBN 0061729671), which became available on May 5, 2009 and was the first official source to openly give out key plot points to the film.

On June 1, 2009 DK Publishing published a 96-page book titled Transformers: The Movie Universe (ISBN 0756651727), which intended to provide factual data on the characters of the movie. This data, however, has been deemed to portray numerous factual errors and discrepancies with the movie itself.

On June 10, 2009 the comic book adaptation of the film (ISBN 160010455X), written by Simon Furman was released.

Additionally, Alan Dean Foster also wrote the novelization for the movie (ISBN 0345515935).

Meanwhile, Dan Jolley wrote Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen: The Junior Novel (ISBN 0061729736), a 144-page book oriented at a younger audience than the one by Foster.

Lastly, a book titled Transformers: The Art of the Movies (ISBN 1848563736), was released, documenting behind-the scenes aspects of the making of the film.

Other minor tie-in publications include Transformers Revenge of the Fallen: The Last Prime (ISBN 0061729728), Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen: The Reusable Sticker Book (ISBN 0061729744), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Made You Look! (ISBN 006172971X, Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen: Rise of the Decepticons (ISBN 0061729701), Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen: Spot the 'Bots (ISBN 006172968X), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Mix and Match (ISBN 0794418791), Operation Autobot (ISBN 0061729663), When Robots Attack (ISBN 0061729655) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 2010 Wall Calendar (ISBN 0768899451).

Video game

Main article: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (video game)

Luxoflux developed a video game based on the film, which Activision published.

The video game has been released in five versions:

• PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version (Developed by Luxoflux)
• Games for Windows Version (Developed by Beenox), which is similar to the PS3 and Xbox 360 version
• Wii and PlayStation 2 version (Developed by Krome Studios)
• PlayStation Portable Version (Developed by Savage Entertainment)
• DS Version (Developed by Vicarious Visions), which is separated into two games, namely Autobots and Decepticons

Reception

Critics

Based on 122 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen received an average 21% overall approval rating. The film had a similar approval rating with the 23 critics in Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critic", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, where it received a 22% approval rating.

Ray Bennett of the Hollywood Reporter commented in his review that "for the uninitiated, it's loud, tedious, and at 147 minutes, way too long." Roger Ebert, who had given the first film three stars, gave Revenge of the Fallen only one star, calling it "...a horrible experience of unbearable length." He later wrote in his blog about the film, saying "The day will come when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be studied in film classes and shown at cult film festivals. It will be seen, in retrospect, as marking the end of an era. Of course there will be many more CGI-based action epics, but never again one this bloated, excessive, incomprehensible, long (149 minutes) or expensive (more than $200 million)."

There has also been considerable negative reaction to the characters Mudflap and Skids, who are alleged to embody racist stereotypes. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times said that "the characters [...] indicate that minstrelsy remains as much in fashion in Hollywood as when, well, Jar Jar Binks was set loose by George Lucas." Critic Scott Mendelson said, "To say that these two are the most astonishingly racist caricatures that I've ever seen in a mainstream motion picture would be an understatement." Harry Knowles, founder of Ain't It Cool News, went further, asking his readers "not to support this film" because "you'll be taking [your children] to see a film with the lowest forms of humor, stereotypes and racism around." Director Bay has attempted to defend the film as "good clean fun" and insisted that "We're just putting more personality in."

However, some critics praised the film's CGI and action sequences, along with Megatron and Starscream's relation, and Optimus Prime's performance. IGN UK gave it an average 3/5 stars.

Box office

The film grossed $16 million on its midnight premiere, the most ever for a Wednesday midnight debut. Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight amassed $18 million for midnight showings last year but that was on a Friday. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen achieved approximately $60.6 million in total receipts on its first day.

Home release

Michael Bay has revealed that the Blu-ray and DVD release of Revenge of the Fallen, being produced by Charlie de Lauzirika, will feature variable aspect ratio for the scenes shot in IMAX format. He also mentions plans for doing a special IMAX edition.

Sequel

As a preemptive measure, Paramount announced a July 4, 2011 release date for a third Transformers film before completion of Revenge of the Fallen. Bay responded, "I said I was taking off a year from Transformers. Paramount made a mistake in dating Transformers 3—they asked me on the phone—I said yes to July 4—but for 2012—whoops! Not 2011! That would mean I would have to start prep in September. No way. My brain needs a break from fighting robots." Like Revenge of the Fallen, Orci refused to guarantee whether he and Kurtzman would return to a sequel, because "we risk getting stale". Orci has mentioned he would like to introduce Unicron "for scale's sake". The co-writer also said introducing Triple Changers would be interesting.

Before Transformers was released, producer Tom DeSanto had "a very cool idea" to introduce the Dinobots, while Bay was interested in an aircraft carrier, which was dropped from the first film. Orci claimed they did not incorporate these characters into Revenge of the Fallen because they could not think of a way to justify the Dinobots' choice of form, and were unable to fit in the aircraft carrier. Orci also admitted he was also dismissive of the Dinobots because he does not like dinosaurs ("I recognize I am weird in that department," he said), but he became fonder of them during filming because of their popularity with fans. He added "I couldn't see why a Transformer would feel the need to disguise himself in front of a bunch of lizards. Movie-wise, I mean. Once the general audience is fully on board with the whole thing, maybe Dinobots in the future."

External links

• Transformers Movie Official site
  • Trailers
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at IMDb
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at AllMovie
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at Box Office Mojo
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at Rotten Tomatoes
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at Yahoo!
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at the Transformers Wiki